A Global BalkansThe
Outcome of Bush’s Grand Strategy

According
to one
review, "the 31-page document asserts American dominance
as the lone superpower – a status no rival power will be allowed
to challenge. And it provides a reason the world should accept
this state of affairs: the expansion of peace and more freedom."
Another
review analyzes the "unrestrained arrogance"
of American Empire, and the plan to reshape the world any
which way it chooses.

All
eyes are now turned towards Iraq, as the testing ground for
the new Grand Strategy. But the test has already been conducted
over the
past decade, in the faraway corner of Europe: the Balkans.
From the early-on involvement in dismembering Yugoslavia to
the current occupation and domination of the resulting vassal
principalities, the US has used the Balkans to test and expand
the limits of its power, eventually abolishing them altogether.

What
the Strategy offers to the world is a global Balkans: ruined,
conquered, desperate, hopelessly mired in delusions and lies.
A wasteland,
called peace.

Practice
Makes Great Theory

There
are many passages in the "National Security Strategy"
dealing with specific objectives, from promoting genetically
modified foods (for which US companies would charge
royalties) and "free trade" (only as long as
America comes out ahead), to subjugating India, China, Russia
and several key African countries. But in the effort to make
the world safe for America, the "Strategy" also
makes broader claims, grounded one way or another in the Empires’
Balkans experiences: a chilling example of how theory is based
on successful practice.

Meanings
of Democracy

In
several places, the "Strategy" asserts the importance
of democracy
in the new world order, and pledges US power to spread it
to the entire world.

"[W]e
are ultimately fighting for our democratic values and way
of life," it says (Section III). How? Consider this
direct reference:

"when
openings arrive, we can encourage change  as we did
in central and eastern Europe between 1989 and 1991, or in
Belgrade in 2000." (Section II)

That
the US literally paid the Serbian opposition to take over
the government was freely
admitted on the pages of the Washington Post and
the New York Times even as the Serbian elections of
2000 were under way. In Kosovo, elections were used to legitimize
the Albanian takeover and the UN/NATO occupation. In Bosnia,
Imperial satraps have regularly attempted to influence
electoral outcomes, and if the results displeased them,
they would simply dismiss
or disenfranchise the winners. Most recently, Imperial lackeys
did their best to manipulate
the vote in Macedonia.

To
seize power anywhere in the Balkans – not just the former
Yugoslavia, either – one needs America’s blessing. Yet the
lives of Croats, Bosnian Muslims, Serbs, Albanians, Macedonians,
Bulgarians, and Romanians are a far cry from the "American
way"- in fact, most are worse off than under Communism.

Rogue
and Evil Logic

The
next pillar of the Strategy is derived from George W. Bush’s
speech in the aftermath of September 11:

"[O]ur
responsibility to history is already clear: to… rid the world
of evil." (Section III)

That
seems like an ambitious goal. After all, George W. Bush considers
himself a Christian. As the foremost Christian
prayer asks God to "deliver us from evil," wouldn’t
this "responsibility to history" be blasphemous?
Certainly, unless "evil" is defined in terms peculiarly
unique to the Imperial worldview.

In
that strange universe, evil and good are not attributes of
actions undertaken by individuals or nations, as would normally
be the case. Rather, they are attributes of individuals and
nations themselves, determining the righteousness or
wickedness of their actions. Bombing civilians, for example,
would be considered evil under the old
morality. In the Imperial world, however, it is evil only
when undertaken by evil people – individuals or nations
thus designated by the Empire (like Slobodan Milosevic). Employed
by
the Empire itself, the embodiment of all that is righteous
and good, it is entirely acceptable. And why is the Empire
the embodiment of all righteous and good? Why because it
says so, of course, in a brilliant display of circular
logic that circumvents every philosophical principle from
the dawn of humanity onwards.

Until
Emperor Bush called them "evil" last year, the US-designated
forces of darkness were referred to by an Albrightism,
"rogue states." According to the Strategy, rogue
states:

"display
no regard for international law, threaten their neighbors,
and callously violate international treaties to which they
are party" (Section V)

But
remember, the Empire says is not capable of evil. Only "rogues"
are.

Absolute
Power

Indeed,
when facing a "rogue" like Slobodan Milosevic, whose
cardinal sin was daring to disobey American
diktat, anything goes. Dare someone argue that
Kosovo was an internal Serbian matter, as international law
clearly supports? Nonsense:

"the
distinction between domestic and foreign affairs is diminishing."
(Section IX)

In
fact, given the proper media coverage, the democratic public
in the West will believe just about anything: from massacre
yarns to unsubstantiated claims of genocide. Not only
can it believe the nonexistent, it can be made to ignore
the existing
– such as the mass expulsion of non-Albanians from the occupied
province, or the
systematic destruction of Serbian churches and cultural
heritage in general. The Strategy pays appropriate homage
to the power of the media:

"we
also need a different and more comprehensive approach to public
information efforts that can help people around the world
learn about and understand America." (Section IX)

In
the aftermath of US interventions, Bosnia (1995+) and Kosovo
(1999+) have been occupied by NATO troops. In Bosnia, the
occupation was supposed to be temporary.
By the time Kosovo came along, even that pretense was abandoned.
"Peacekeeping" was replaced by "nation-building."
Though a cruel experiment in playing God, with predictably
disastrous results, it is endorsed by the Strategy:

"As
humanitarian relief requirements are better understood, we
must also be able to help build police forces, court systems,
and legal codes, local and provincial government institutions,
and electoral systems." (Section IX)

Finally,
there was the manner in which the Kosovo War was fought: massive
destruction from the air, combined with proxy forces on the
ground to avoid American casualties. Empire’s causes are worth
thousands of deaths, as long as they are not American.
The Strategy says:

But
what "defenses" does it speak of? September 11 has
shown that the Empire lacks true defenses; all its military
might is offensive: from aircraft carriers that project
bombers (i.e. power) all over the world, to cruise missiles,
smart bombs, fast tanks and special forces. Almost since its
inception, the United States has defined war as something
that takes place elsewhere.

The
Law, and Those Above It

It
is the absolute power to attack (but not defend) anyone, anywhere,
anytime, that has most likely enabled the assumption of Imperial
rulers that they alone can define good and evil. To them,
law is but a way of exercising power – a means to an end,
no more. Their Manifest Destiny allows for some magnificent
sophistry:

[T]he
United States must defend liberty and justice because these
principles are right and true for all people everywhere. No
nation owns these aspirations, and no nation is exempt from
them.( Section II)

All
are equal before the law: a noble sentiment by any standard,
and entirely true. But at the same time, some are more
equal than others:

"We
will take the actions necessary to ensure that our efforts
to meet our global security commitments and protect Americans
are not impaired by the potential for investigations, inquiry,
or prosecution by the International Criminal Court (ICC),
whose jurisdiction does not extend to Americans and which
we do not accept." (Section IX)

Again,
a noble value – refusing to give up a nation’s sovereignty
to a politically motivated and unprecedented supranational
institution – is in service of rank
hypocrisy. For even as the US rejects the ICC, it flogs
Yugoslavia almost daily into submitting to the ICTY, a "court"
even less legitimate than its world-encompassing offspring,
and even
more clearly political in character.

True
Friends of Terrorism

Of
course, the Strategy is ultimately about the Empire’s ongoing
"war on terrorism". But the war is not against
all terrorism – merely the kind aimed against Americans.
Employed against others, especially America’s enemies, it
is not called "terrorism," and is definitely not
labeled as evil.

Terrorism
happens to be a remarkably effective way of achieving political
and other aims, which is why it is so widespread. The Strategy
clearly defines terrorism as "premeditated, politically
motivated violence perpetrated against innocents." (Section
III)

Consider,
then, a statement by Lt.
Gen. Michael Short, US Air Force, quoted in the International
Herald Tribune and the Washington Post in May 1999:

"If
you wake up in the morning and you have no power to your house
and no gas to your stove and the bridge you take to work is
down and will be lying in the Danube for the next 20 years,
I think you begin to ask, 'Hey, Slobo, what's this all about?
How much more of this do we have to withstand?' And at some
point, you make the transition from applauding Serb machismo
against the world to thinking what your country is going to
look like if this continues."

Is
this not "premeditated, politically motivated violence
perpetrated against innocents"? Even as Imperial sophistry
says no (for the Empire can do no evil), all logic and reason
say yes.

In
the period leading up to the US attack, the Albanian "Kosovo
Liberation Army" engaged
in politically motivated violence against innocents. It
was even branded "a clearly terrorist organization"
by a US diplomat, who was subsequently exiled to Indonesia
for this transgression. The KLA, you see, couldn’t possibly
be terrorists. They were fighting for "American values,"
as Sen. Joseph Lieberman infamously noted. Never mind their
actions, or their celebration of their Nazi
ancestors. Imperial support for the KLA and its offshoots
in Macedonia and southwestern Serbia is unwavering.

That
is not one last straw, though. Dripping in hypocrisy, the
Strategy repeatedly states that liberty and trade create peace
and prosperity – a manifest truth, actually. But the very
concept of Empire is emphatically opposed to liberty,
trade, peace, and prosperity: it is entirely about enslavement,
power, conquest and despair – in short, about force.

But
according to His Elevated Majesty, if someone dares dispute
this, or argue that peace, liberty and prosperity cannot possibly
come at gunpoint (only power does, as Chairman Mao famously
observed), such evil rogues and misfits will be preventively
bombed out of existence. For their own good, of course.

Just
ask the Serbs.


Nebojsa Malic

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Nebojsa
Malic left his home in Bosnia after the Dayton Accords and
currently resides in the United States. During the Bosnian
War he had exposure to diplomatic and media affairs in Sarajevo,
and contributed to the Independent.
As a historian who specializes in international relations
and the Balkans, Malic has written numerous essays on the
Kosovo War, Bosnia and Serbian politics. His
exclusive column for Antiwar.com appears every Thursday.